音乐家Little V和Husky By The Geek像龙音乐一样

When it comes to great video game series, there isn’t one singular thing that makes them memorable, but a blend of many incredible elements that work together to create something unforgettable. In addition to the characters, narrative, and gameplay, a key factor is the music.

We recently spoke with James “Little V” Mills and Husky by the Geek (real name Benjamin Belmonte). Both are musicians and content creators, but more importantly, they’re Like a Dragon superfans. So, they were the perfect people to speak to about Like a Dragon’s music.

Little V has been a professional musician and content creator for over a decade, best known for his metal covers of pop, meme, video game, and anime songs. However, he also writes music for games, other content creators, and wrestlers. “Some of my favourite things I’ve done are Kenny Omega’s AEW theme ‘Battle Cry’, playing some guitar on the track ‘Inferno’ from the Killer Instinct OST by Mick Gordon, and Maximillian Dood’s opening music for his YouTube videos.”

It was the early 2010s when Little V first heard about the Like a Dragon series, back when it was still going by the Yakuza moniker, telling us, “I think the first thing I saw was the revelation from Yakuza 3 of the woman flipping her scooter over a car and thought it was hilarious!” He didn’t have a PlayStation at the time, so he wasn’t able to play until a few years later when Yakuza 0 launched for PC.

“Since it was a prequel, I figured I’d finally give it a try. I fell in love with the characters immediately, Kiryu and Majima specifically. I think the way it rides the line between the super serious crime drama story and ridiculous substories is what really made it stand out to me,” Little V says, explaining that he’s since played every mainline game other than Infinite Wealth, and that’s only because “I don’t think I’d be able to put it down and I have too much work to do at the moment”.

Husky by the Geek is well known for his video game covers on YouTube, especially his Final Fantasy 14 numbers, but he’s also a composer and writes original music for streamers and indie video game developers. Much like Little V, Husky’s first real entry into the series was Yakuza 0 a couple of years ago, “I instantly loved it and I devoured the series going from Yakuza 0 to Like a Dragon within a few months. I love all the games. My favourites are Yakuza 0, Yakuza 5, and Infinite Wealth.”

One of the things that Husky loves the most about the Yakuza series music is that it juggles a lot of different styles because “adapting other genres into rock and metal covers is the thing I enjoy the most when I’m doing a cover”. His favourite song from the series to cover was Yakuza 0’s Friday Night, a fan favourite, because “it’s so groovy and has pure good vibes”. Other covers prove more challenging, “The cover of Amon from Yakuza 0 (Fiercest Warrior). When I do a cover, I’m trying to keep the spirit of the original song, so transcribing the ambience of the dubstep parts into a guitar cover was challenging.”

Little V also loves covering the Like a Dragon soundtracks and particularly enjoys recreating the karaoke numbers, “All the karaoke songs each have their own music video so it’s really fun trying to replicate them on a low budget. It’s also fun to dress up as the characters singing the songs as well! I think I have four Kiryu and three Majima cosplays now.”

However, Little V mentions that singing songs in Japanese can be challenging, “Singing in a language you don’t speak is tricky, but it’s been a fun way to learn” and while he is aware there are now English versions of the karaoke songs, he prefers the originals as that’s how he heard them first. He tells us that covering 24-Hour Cinderella and Receive You were the songs he had the most fun with, “I love the fun ‘80s energy of 24-Hour Cinderella in both the song and the music video, but Kiryu’s theme still gives me chills every time I hear it!”

“I think what makes the Yakuza/LaD soundtracks so amazing is how diverse and memorable they are,” Little V tells us. “The characters are put in so many different scenarios from crime drama, to managing a cabaret club, to competitive bottle collecting on bicycles, and the soundtrack always manages to elevate each story beat or mini-game.”

Composing game music can be tricky as it needs to accomplish many things at once. It must complement what’s happening on screen, have a balance so that it doesn’t overshadow or undersell the importance of the scene, and be catchy enough to like but not so repetitive that you get sick of hearing it. Just one aspect of a game soundtrack has myriad things it must accomplish, with Little V using the battle music from Yakuza 0 as an example.

“It needs to be intense but not too much as to take away from the boss battle music. Then it also needs to be catchy enough that it doesn’t get boring on your 80th fight. And then because of the style switching, you need three—four, technically—different themes that do all that, properly represent the feeling of each fighting style, and flow into each other at any point of the song since the player is in control of when that’s gonna happen. Then do all that again for a second character. Then switch genres and go write a soundtrack to the cabaret club. It’s a lot of work and I don’t think you need to be a musician to understand how much time and care goes into one of these soundtracks.”

Husky adds that the diversity in the music genres, which are tailored to suit the many different situations in the game, is what makes the soundtrack special, such as “electro-rock for combat, silly acoustic guitar for funny substories, jazz in some bars” and also appreciates that the series features so many catchy melodies and memorable tracks, especially when it comes to the karaoke.

With such a strong narrative and standout characters throughout Like a Dragon, the series strongly emphasises individual character themes. Little V explains that the remixes of Kiryu’s in each game “highlight the importance of that moment”, while he argues that “Kuze’s theme is a big reason why he’s such a well-loved character in the series despite only being in one game.”

Every fan has their favourites when it comes to karaoke, with the first song title on everyone’s lips usually being Baka Mitai. Husky’s favourite karaoke song is Judgment, while Little V struggles to pick just one, instead saying it’s a three-way tie between Baka Mitai, 24-Hour Cinderella, and Machine Gun Kiss, but specifically Adachi’s version.

You can check out Little V’s music via
his YouTube
and follow him
on Twitte
r, and likewise you can catch up with Husky by the Geek
on Twitter
and check out
his YouTube
for his musical creations.